562 NEW ENGLAND TREES IN WINTER. 



HARDY CATALPA 

 Cigar Tree, Indian Bean, Western Catalpa. 



Catalpa speciosa Warder. 



HABIT A tall tree reaching- 100 ft. in height and 4 ft. in trunk 

 diamenter in the Ohio basin, of smaller dimensions in New England 

 with slender branches, forming a comparatively narrow round-topped 

 head. 



BARK Reddish to grayish brown, with longitudinal scaly ridges. 



TWIGS Stout, smooth or slig-htly short-downy, reddish to yellowish- 

 brown, the tips of twigs generally winter killed. LENTICELS - 

 conspicuous, rather large and numerous. PITH white, wide, occasion- 

 ally chambered at the nodes. 



LEAF-SCARS Opposite or more frequently 3 at a node, large 

 and conspicuous, round to elliptical, with depressed center. STIPULE- 

 SCARS absent. BUNDLE-SCARS conspicuous, often raised, forming a 

 closed ring 1 . 



BUDS Terminal bud absent, lateral buds small, semi-spherical, 

 generally under 2 mm. high. BUD-SCALES brown, loosely overlapping, 

 about 5 or 6 visible. 



FRUIT A long cylindrical capsule, 8-20 inches in length, with nu- 

 merous flattened, winged, white-hairy, fringed seeds, persistent on 

 the tree through winter. The photograph of the capsule is reduced to 

 about % natural size. 



COMPARISONS The 3 large circular leaf-scars at a node with 

 complete ring of bundle-scars renders the Catalpa twig easily recog- 

 nizable. The long cigar-like fruits that hang on the tree supply a 

 distinctive habit character. A very closely related southern and less 

 hardy species the Common Catalpa [Catalpa bignonioides Walt.] was 

 formerly more planted than the Hardy Catalpa. It is a smaller tree 

 with a rather more spreading habit but is most readily distinguished 

 from the western species at the time of flowering. 



DISTRIBUTION Not native in New England but planted as an orna- 

 mental shade tree and for timber. It grows native along borders of 

 streams and ponds and rich often inundated bottom-land; southern 

 Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri south into Kentucky, Tennessee and 

 Arkansas. 



\VOOD Light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, very durable in contact 

 with the soil, light brown with thin nearly white sapwood of 1 or i 

 layers of annual growth; largely used for railroad ties, fence posts 

 and rails and occasionally for furniture and the interior finish of 

 houses. 



